After we took our bus through the mountains we emerged in the tiny village of Gudvangen, located at the end of Nærøyfjord, which is an arm of Aurlandsfjord, which in turn, is an arm of Sognefjord. Getting off of our bus we immediately boarded our ferry for an eleven mile ride on Nærøyfjord.
Nærøyfjord is named after Njord, a Norse god associated with wind, seafarers, coasts, and inland waters. It is a UNESCO World Heritage Site, and if I had to choose, this may have been my favorite part of our whole trip. The scenery was spectacular, and even though it was raining for most of our ferry ride we were spellbound.
I wasn’t quite sure at what point we left Nærøyfjord and entered Aurlandsfjord so I’m posting these pictures together, and, I’m splitting them into three posts so this post won’t be unbearably long. However, they are in the order they were taken. It was difficult deciding which pictures to use, but I think I managed to cull the cream of the crop for my readers!
I couldn’t get over how tiny the houses seemed sitting at the base of the mountains. The mist and clouds offered a heightened sense of drama. And as we were learning about Norway, there was always another waterfall to be seen as we sailed on. On the shores we also saw small villages, farms, sheep and goats.
It is steep and deep, shallow and wide, wild and gentle. Nærøyfjord is a 18 km long branch of the worlds second longest fjord Sognefjord (204 km). It is only 250 metres at the narrowest, and more than one kilometres at the widest. The depth varies between 10 and 500 metres. The surrounding mountains are up to more than 1400 metres high.
~ www.naeroyfjord.com
More pictures coming!
My my! Beautiful! Makes one feel small compared the grand scale of it all!
Thanks, Jeff! It was humbling being surrounded by so much natural majesty!
Breathtaking! I can barely image actually being there, even the images make me feel like a tiny dot in the scheme of the mountains grandeur and the beauty of the scenery.
Thanks, Joanne! It feels so much like a dream now that it’s hard for me to believe I was ever actually there, and it was only two months ago…
Dear Barbara, Your pictures are making me crave for the European fresh air! Its too much for me to see these pictures while its all smoky and dusty and dirty all around here 🙁
Thank you so much for letting me know that there exists serenity around the globe. Some times I forget that the world is not all about noise & traffic & pollution & ah! I’m so sorry to whine about these things, hmph… 🙁
It sounds like you’re describing a very hot summer in the city, Sonali. Ugh. You have my sympathy because I often say I’d rather be too cold than too hot. At least if it’s cold you have a chance to warm up by adding more clothing and crawling under a blanket. And crowds of people scare me – being in a city is way too overstimulating and overwhelming for me, which is why I had a hard time in Venice. Feel free to whine! I only wish I could send you a breath of fresh air! 🙂
Once again, stunning! I love the close-up of the gull. 🙂
Thank you, Robin! That gull sat there staring at us for the longest time. 🙂
grand daughter of Lovise Sands Bahm, great grand daughter of Petrine Sands. Petrines mother was most likely Petrine Lovise Olsdatter. I wonder how much more I can find out about just where she lived in Naeroy, Nord-Trondelag, Norway
My great great grandmother Petrine Lovise Olsdatter probably knew this vision.
Susan, your 2nd-great-grandmother was blessed to be able to live in such a awe-inspiring place! Have you tried doing any research on Ancestry.com? That’s where I found some links to my 3rd-great-grandfather, Ingebrigt Martinus Hansen, who was born in 1818 in Brevik (Telemark) Norway. It took me many years to find him because he changed his name when he came to America – one of these days I will post the story. Wishing you luck in your search!!!
Your photos brought back nice memories for me too Barbara and I am going to return and read your other posts about this trip (once I catch up in Reader a little – I am now four days behind as I likely won’t get there tonight). Your trip was just five years ago – mine was 37 years ago! I also was on the Sognefjord for our fjord cruise. You have captured the magnificent mountains in the background. We stayed in the Stalheim Hotel which was a mountaintop resort on top of an 820-foot precipice. Did you stay or visit there at all? I have a picture someone took where I am sitting on a rock with the mountains in the background. Our guide suggested we each take a photo in that pose as it was “a sky-high” picture that was representative of Norway.
No, we didn’t stay at the Stalheim Hotel. We stayed at the Flåmsbrygga Hotel in Flåm, at an Airbnb in Bergen, and at the Fossli Hotel in Eidfjord, at the top of the Måbødalen Valley, overlooking the magnificent Vøringfossen waterfall. Sleeping to the sounds of that waterfall was a magical experience I will never forget. If I remember correctly, that’s where we had reindeer for dinner and water from a glacier… Now that I’m looking at my pictures again Norway is tugging at my heart again… It seems like a dream now…
I wonder if international travel will ever be like it was? I always traveled alone from Michigan, but was not all that brave as I would hook up with a travel group so everything was taken care of by the tour company. I always met nice people on those tours and people took me under their wing and asked me to sit near them on the train, or bus, or at their table for meals. I kept in touch with some of the tour members and we exchanged photos when we got home – this was, as you know, before digital photography and e-mail. We had extra prints made and exchanged them.
I had a few places left on my “Travel Bucket List” … Italy, France, Alaska and a Fall foliage tour on a train on the East Coast. I wish now that I had done that while I was laid off, after my mother passed away and Marge would have looked out for the house, but I didn’t … it would not have been right to go then either. But it may not be the right time down the road either when retired … things are so different now. I never worried while traveling and felt 100% safe, although Sadat was murdered two weeks after I visited Cairo. I’m okay with no more traveling – I was lucky to go where I did. This 3-week trip to the four Scandinavian countries and Russia was a whirlwind trip. We saw a lot and we had our same tour guide the entire three weeks, plus local guides in each country. They were very thorough. [I am so behind in Reader … I had hoped to catch up tonight and I lost my internet for almost six hours and had to finish some work I had started when my internet went out. I hate being so behind.
I also wonder what international travel will be like in the future, mainly because my daughter and son-in-law love to travel and so do my brother-in-law and sister-in-law. We never traveled much and are content to stay home, even though a trip to Norway or Ireland might be a temptation. When we went to Norway my husband and his brother took care of all the logistics. Sometimes I think they enjoyed the planning as much as the trip. I was glad to be traveling with his brother and his wife because they are experienced international travelers and we definitely were not! If I was in your shoes I would go with a tour company, too. And you had the benefit of making new friends along the way, while we kept to ourselves. Although we had some nice conversations with some people, they were brief and we soon went our separate ways. But I felt so at home in Norway.
Have fun catching up in Reader! What an inconvenient time to lose your internet for six hours…
Even 37 years ago, it was remarkable how many people in Europe speak English. I’m ashamed to say that I took many years of French, but would not admit it anymore. I didn’t use French unfortunately. Growing up in Canada, it was mandatory to study French, took it in college, even one year of class where we could not speak English in class. But the tours did make it easy as you did not have to do anything at all. I have a high school friend and her and her husband traveled on cruises, tours all over the world – they were always on the go. They were booked for an Alaska cruise for July this year. They are anxious to get back to traveling again and just returned from their first trip since March – driving to Washington State. (I personally would not be that restless to take chances in hotels, restaurants just to go somewhere, but I am a worry wart and am probably being over-cautious.) If I went to Alaska I would choose a cruise, maybe even a smaller ship that is able to get closer to the shoreline. Then choose shore trips … that would be my first choice as poor Alaska is slowly melting away and since it is a domestic trip, might be a safer bet than international travel. That takes a lot of consideration though and for sure, long after COVID is over. I went on Panama Canal and Greek Island cruises; there was no fear of Norovirus then. It seems everything was simpler then.
I got two through Halloween on Reader … hopefully two more days before I shut down tonight.
It would seem that English has become an international language. Like you, I took French but remember very little of it. Tim’s brother and his wife were on their way home from a trip to Guam and Japan when the pandemic started. Who knows when they will travel again? Tim & I are fine with staying put. The Panama Canal sounds exciting! I lived in Greece for a couple of years with my family as a teenager and we toured Santorini and Crete while we were there. I will have to check and see if you have other travel posts on your blog. Good luck catching up!